The Flaws of Democracy and the Collapse of Empires

Democracy's flaws lie in creating states of emergency for more power, influenced by short-term thinking, loss of virtue, and private land ownership.

### The Decline of Democracy and the Founding Fathers' Vision
* 🏛 ️ Democracies face a fatal flaw where **power and resources flow upwards to psychopaths** who manipulate public opinion to gain power, leading to **tyranny**.
* 🏡 Private land ownership, community self-governance, and virtue were the founding fathers' safeguards to **protect democracy and ensure long-term thinking**.
* 👑 Democracies are like rentals, with short-term caretakers making decisions based on **gaining popularity** rather than **thinking generations ahead**.
* 🔒 Just as a **benevolent monarchy inside oneself** leads to good decisions, societies should be structured to produce **philosopher kings** to thrive.
* 🌍 Decentralization, such as through Bitcoin and creating decentralized communities, offers an opportunity to **apply different political philosophies and find what works**.
* 🚀 Nations flourish and grow fastest when on the frontier against intense adversity, with "**wasabia**" or shared group feeling being a key factor for a healthy nation.
* 📜 Despite democracy being worshipped today, the founding fathers and many great thinkers despised or approached it with caution, recognizing its tendency to lead to the **death of excellence**.
* 🎯 "We have lost the original intention and values that our founding fathers stood up for and died for, and this is a **catastrophe**."

hey, welcome to the first Wisdom Warriors podcast. Today, we're talking about democracy and some of the ideas of our founding fathers that I find so interesting. This podcast is more geared to cultural philosophy, whereas my normal videos are more towards personal philosophy. Now, cultural philosophy is fascinating because we live in such politically driven times where we're going to see this rapid descent and collapsing of Empires, and also the birthing of new ones where political philosophy can actually be applied. And furthermore, I think just the ideas of past great thinkers and also the examples of ancient cultures when it comes to how to organize society and how to organize life to create high culture is probably one of the most important questions we can ask and one of the most important conversations we can have. This channel is dedicated to the exploration of how to create high culture externally and internally. So, thanks for joining me. I'm Christian. You can sit back, you know, put this on while you're driving, while you're doing something. Let's have

a little conversation today. This podcast was inspired by recently watching the first three Star Wars movies or rewatching them. And if you haven't seen them, definitely go check them out. They're very powerful stories. But also, I found them to be quite a documentary for what's on in the world and how tyrants manipulate public opinion and manipulate democracies to rise to power. I'm going to give you a brief recap of the first three Star Wars movies before moving on to our discussion on Democracy. Palpatine is a senator on the Galactic Senate, and the Galactic Senate is this Republic where every star system and planet in the galaxy sends a representative to help make overarching, you know, political policy. Palpatine is a senator, and he wants to rise to power. He wants to rule the galaxy. How does he do this, right? He funds the Trade Federation to essentially create a coup on Naboo, this peaceful planet, and to terrorize the people. He funds a terrorist organization, essentially, and all this.

chaos is happening on this planet and the Senate isn't able to act quickly enough to solve it. Palpatine's like hey, we need more executive power. We need to remove the current Chancellor, maybe put someone like me in charge who can actually take sweeping actions. The s's like yeah, good idea. So Palpatine gains some power, right? And then in the preceding two movies, he continues to create problems. He continues to create War through his terrorist organizations that he's controlling, right? So he's creating these terrorist organizations and creating this Galactic Civil War. And he's constantly going to the Senate and being like hey, for the greater good, look how good of a guy I am. I'm creating this greater good, this greater peace and security for everyone. I just need a little bit more executive power to make that happen. And he continues going back to the Senate until his master stroke moment. In his master stroke moment, when he isolated his adversaries, the Jedi, right? And he's like hey, the Jedi are actually your enemies. They are secretly working

working with you know the dark Forces. The Jedi are trying to take over the Senate. They're trying to kill me because the Jedi knew he was the Sith Lord at that point, right? And he's like, you know what, we need to end this war and to end the Jedi, we need a new Empire. And that is why I am founding the new Empire, you know, of the Galaxy. And everyone applauds, right? And then Padme, Anakin's girlfriend, says, So this is how Liberty dies, to thunderous Applause. I was like, wow, how applicable is this story to our world, and no one sees this. I don't want to go off on any like conspiracy tangents here, but take a step back and realize that there are psychopaths who want to rise, who want global domination in this world, right? And these psychopaths, what they do is they create a problem, they create a reaction in the demos, in the people, this polarizing issue, and to solve this polarizing issue, there needs to be more executive power.

to give a solution, right, and they present themselves as the good guy, as the champion of the demos of the people, right, and they're actually creating the conflicts. This is like the US creating Al-Qaeda so that we could go into the Middle East. This is like whoever is creating Hamas right now in the Middle East and this Palestine-Israel conflict. So many people jump to supporting one side or the other and moralizing it. Oh, I'm so virtuous because I'm anti-anti-semitic and I'm anti-colonialism and I'm anti-oppression and I'm a champion for the victims. I'm Pro-Palestine or I'm Pro-Ukraine, right, and they immediately jump to one polarity or the other and this is exactly what tyrants want. They want to manipulate public opinion and create danger so that they can gain power and this is how democracies operate. Democracies in the second half of their life cycle often are constantly creating states of emergency so that they can

create more power and resources in an upward flow towards Psychopaths at the top, and this is the problem with democracy. Democracies are ruled by the mob opinion, and unfortunately, the mob opinion is very easily influenced. Just look at someone like Edward Bernays, who wrote the book on manipulating public opinion and was employed by the CIA and so many other faculties of government. The mob generally is whipped up into riots, into group think, and this group think often is willing to sacrifice liberties for securities. Oh, there's this cold going around, this flu going around, right, and now you have to stay inside, you can only, you're only allowed this much time outside. The deeper problem here is that danger creates an upward flow of resource and power. When it's mob rule, democracies will always end in tyrannies in some way, even if it's a hidden hand. And that Hidden Hand right now is corporatocracy, maybe you know or have an idea of where Palpatine is sitting. Leaders rise to power based off how

popular they are. It's a popularity contest, and to gain popularity is easy. You just have to be clever and less biased than everyone else. You just have to, like, make lies and pander to the lowest of society. And that's how you gain power in a democracy. This is a huge problem because if we take a step back and rationally look at how society should be managed, we all probably say we want the best and the wisest people to lead. How do you make that happen? That is the question of almost every philosopher ever who dabbled in politics. How do we have philosopher kings rule? All of society should be set up in a way to produce philosopher kings because if there's a wise and good king, there's a wise and good leader. Everything will prosper, everything will flourish. And that's the bottom line. Societies are, in fact, set up in a way that tyrants, the cleverest and most debased people, will rise to power. And usually, psychopaths who want nothing but power, especially in the L.

latter cycle of the lifespan. There's a famous quote that I really like. I think it's from Jefferson, and it goes that anyone who is willing to trade freedoms for safeties deserves neither. Democracy only works when each citizen is sovereign and engaged. We're going to get into the founding fathers' ideas of how to actually create a successful Republic, and their ideas worked for a time. We're going to get into that a little later in the video. Right now, I want to talk about why democracy may not be the best solution for government. The crazy thing is we're all trained to fight for democracy. In fact, democracy is worshipped. Everything in the past hundred years is about protecting democracy and making the world safe for democracy and combating tyranny and all these things. Democracy is the worst tyranny of them all. So let's read from a little bit of Will Durant, my favorite historian, on his views on aristocracy. Democracy, it means drift.

it means permission given to each part of an organism to do just what it pleases. That means there's a lapse of coherence and interdependence, the enthronement of Liberty and Chaos. It means the worship of mediocrity and the hatred of excellence. And how can a nation become great when its greatest men lie unused, discouraged, and perhaps unknown? Such a society loses character. Imitation is horizontal instead of vertical growth. Not the superior man, but the majority man, become the model. Everybody comes to resemble everyone else. Even the sex is approximate, and Men become like women, and women become like men. Will Durant, let's unpack this a little bit. Not the superior man, but the majority man, become the model. Look at Hollywood movies today. Who are the heroes? It's usually your average Joe guy. And it's usually, especially masculine roles, are carefully dumbed down, softened. In Marvel superhero movies, they're always made to look like a buffoon in some way, not like a stoic, assertive, strong, courageous man, right?

not a noble man. The noble Heroes of the past, in fact, are being ripped down in all ways. I took a poster of George Washington off my wall, and I had a friend come over, and she's like, Why do you have that up? I hate that. That's like the image of colonialism and, you know, the destruction of native land and Native people. And I'm like, Oh my God, George Washington and all of his friends fought and died for what they believed in, for a new vision, a progressive idea of how they could create a flourishing culture, right? Based off the values and the beliefs of that time, yes, but nonetheless, they fought and died for something, for the freedom that we have today from like this, you know, U monarchical Rule. And it's just an example of how our heroes have been tarnished and replaced with the average man, the softened man. And on the other side of that, all these strong female leads in Hollywood movies, right, they exemplify masculine virtues and masculine qualities and emotional suppression and like stoicism.

lacking the maternal nurturing instinct and it's so true. In 200 years ago, was like yo at the end of democracy, the sexes are going to approximate and this and the average man is going to replace the superior man. I think we're living in his prophetic vision right now. So, the core foundation of liberal democracy is always going to create cultural conflict and degradation over time and we're going to get into why now and we're going to contrast democracy with monarchy. So, I want you to imagine owning land and imagine owning this piece of land that you're going to give to your children's children's children that you're going to have and you get to reap the benefits of its production and you know what it exports this land, right? You get to you live on there it's your kingdom. How well would you take care of that land? Would you invest in it? Would you, you know, make sure that there's good balance in the ecosystem? Would you make sure there's good balance in the

relations of everyone who lives on that land. Would you treat it well probably because you own it? Contrast that with renting a piece of land. I'm renting this house. I have a backyard that is just in ruins, basically because I know I'm leaving in a month, right? I don't want to clean up the backyard and invest my time, energy, and money into making it beautiful. I don't invest into making this rental space beautiful beyond what it's functional because I know I'm leaving soon. That's just the reality of everything when you have a rental. You treat it like a rental. You don't treat it with a lot of loving care and make sure that it's productive and valuable to your kids, kids, kids, right? Democracy is like a rental. We have caretakers that come in for short stints of power, right? And these caretakers aren't thinking generations ahead. They're thinking towards the end of their term, four years away. And because of this, they're willing to make they're willing to do anything to

basically humor the populace and make decisions that are going to increase their polling numbers. They say they're going to, you know, redistribute wealth. They say they're going to do all these things that are going to satisfy the masses, right? And then they, you know, get acquire all these debts and print all this money and just pass it on to the next person. Because a strong economy is the number one thing that's going to influence polls. So not thinking generations ahead, they're thinking not even 10 years ahead, they're thinking in the next two years. How am I, how do I gain popularity? And this is a tragedy on so many levels. Warren Buffett, the most successful investor. We all know him, Warren Buffett. He invests most enthusiastically in family-owned companies. Why? Because they're thinking about how their grandchildren will benefit from this business project, right? He invests in family-owned companies and privately owned companies very rarely in publicly owned companies because the public opinion is going to create short-term thinking. And this is what

democracy does right, especially democracy divorced from private land ownership. We're going to get into private land ownership here in a second, but consider this: would you let your internal world be a democracy where every vice and voice gets an equal say in what happens? That would be chaos, that would be literal self-destruction, all those vices and weaker voices getting to say. In fact, the internal world, the best organization of it, would be into a benevolent dictatorship or benevolent monarchy, right where the strongest, best, and greatest voice leads. You can't make decisions based off what all these voices are saying and make them strong and good decisions, just like a president can't say things or make decisions that everyone's going to dislike but it's going to be great for generations to come, like perhaps Stop Printing Money, Stop acquiring more debts, right? No one's going to like that, but that's going to be beneficial for generations to come. It's the same thing inside, and I think how we organize our internal world of voices and how we

organize Society should be a reflection. So when we're thinking about political philosophies, apply them inside. And if they work inside, they might work better outside. I want to read a little bit of the thoughts of our forefathers. And to be quick here, Socrates, Aristotle, Francis Bacon, and Plato, like most great thinkers, despised democracy or approached with extreme caution. Almost all of them universally because they agreed with, you know, is a death of Excellence. John Adams writing to John Taylor, the some of the founding fathers said, Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes away, exhausted, and murders itself. There was never a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. It is in vain to say that democracy is less fain vain, less proud, less selfish, and less ambitious or le uh than aristocracy or monarchy. Another quote, this one from James Madison, another founding father, said, Hence it is that democracies have always been spectacles of turbulence and contention, have ever been found on incompatibility with personal security or the rights of

property and in general have been short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths. It's amazing again how much we worship democracy today and how it's vaed as as this unsalable Kingdom. When in reality, even the people who were creating it were like, yo, we got to be Wicked careful with this one because it's might be the best model we have right now, but it's majorly flawed. How did the founding fathers create safeguards to protect democracy and the essence that's going to progress their Nation towards something higher and more beautiful than ever before? How did they do that? It was rooted in three things in Thomas Jefferson's eyes, and that is private ownership of land, virtue, and uh participation and influence in self-governance, right? So, small community sovereignty. These three things I want to unpack a little bit. Private ownership of land is what allows man to think long term. This is going back to the monarchy idea. To have a successful democracy, you need to have essentially each individual as their own King. And when each

individual is their own King on their Little Kingdom right. All of a sudden, they're thinking far ahead. Their time preference extends, okay. Their time preference extends. When you own something, you're like, Hey, I want this to be beautiful and nice for my kids, and I want the production and the value of this property to ever be increasing, right? You're thinking very long term, and when you're thinking long term, you're willing to make sacrifices in the present for the future, right? This is so key. And right now, what's happening is we're moving into a society of renters. Companies like Black Rock and Vanguard and State Street and their subsidiaries are buying up single-family homes all over the place, right? 20% is what I heard recently. 20% of single-family homes are owned by these mega-conglomerate corporations, and that's only increasing. It's going to be 50% a couple of decades down the road, right? We're creating the society of renters, and when you're a

renter, you don't give a about you know suffering now to make something beautiful later. You don't care anymore, you're much more geared towards uh pleasure and gain now, just like our democracy. It's gained, it's geared towards economic growth and pleasure now, at the sacrifice of the future. That's not how you build a strong tower, right? So in this Society of renters, our time preference shrink and it continues to shrink because we don't believe that we're going to own something and that it's going to be fruitful and valuable for generations to come. We're disconnected from the land, so private land ownership is essential because people have a say in their community. And that brings us to the second point, and that's self-governance. A society like Athens and the original states of America flourished at first because people had felt so engaged in the political sphere. They felt like they had influence, and that's because there wasn't a lot of federal power, there was a lot of community power. The states held

a lot of power, and the local governing bodies also held a lot of power, so you could actually go make sweeping changes at your community court, at your community Congress, you know, whatever it is. You can make bigger changes. And when you're engaged in political discourse like that, where you actually feel like what you say matters, all of a sudden, you're much more engaged in society and helping society. You're not like other than these activists, like yelling on the streets. Like, how much do you really have a say in what happens? Almost none, because that's such a high level. Now, like, I don't participate even in the local elections because it's basically meaningless. Maybe if I had children in school, it would be a little different, but we have such little participation in the governing bodies that why, like why even pursue political philosophy and deeper thought and be engaged with my community when nothing that I do matters? It's the same mentality with renting, nothing that I do matters, right? And the third thing is virtue. Virtue is best founded on a

higher belief on religion originally right. And again, here we see the death of God, the death of religion, the death of religious faith, and with it, the death of virtue, the death of objective truth of right and wrong, good and bad, what is what is BAS and what is noble. And this is what democracy does, is it eliminates it. El it, uh, it makes the playing field equal, right. And in doing so, you make everything equal, like there is no more right and wrong, there is no objective truth, there's no higher order of beauty and power and meaning and love, right. And without that, virtue dies. And as virtue dies, again, now life is even more meaningless. Why does it matter? Why does being a virtuous man or woman even matter for my life? Because my life's not connected to my community, my life isn't connected to Future Generations, my life is this atomized, isolated cell. And this is where we find ourselves today. We have lost private land ownership, we have lost participation in government, and we have lost virtue. And with these three losses

Society is going to collapse. It's only a matter of time. It could be a year, could be 10 years, it could be 30 years, but it's going to collapse 'cause we have lost the meaning to be great. We have lost a purpose that initially lit the fire in the founding fathers, that lit the fire of every great conqueror, revolutionary, visionary, someone trying to create something freaking awesome. And this goes back to having uh George Washington, you know, this heroic picture of him leading in this army across this bay. And why people despise that image now, they despise that image because they see him as a hero of something they no longer believe in, because their beliefs have been dragged through the muck and everything is meaningless to them. And they don't feel that pentious destiny, that fire brewing inside of them of like hey, this is the way to go, this is going to create flourishing, this is going to be beautiful. No, we're so nihilistic and materialistic and comforted because we are again in the death throes of an

Empire and not many people see this. We have lost the original intention and values that our founding fathers stood up for and died for, and this is a catastrophe. So that's why democracies will fall, and our democracy is in its death throes now. I just want to leave you with a couple of tangents on maybe moving forward and on monarchies again. So moving forward, I see this great opportunity in decentralization, in ideas like Bitcoin and what they stand for. Since we've become so atomized, right, people are actually seeking community, and thanks to the internet, now we can actually find people that are truly like-minded and kindred, right? We can find actual families in a sense, and we have this opportunity to create decentralized community, perhaps first online and then in the real world, and with decentralized money and also decentralized political power. There's a couple ways. I want to make a whole podcast on decentralization, but in my mind, I'm just like, okay, what's the solution when everything's going to

and it's like, well, if we can create decentralized communities, this would solve almost everyone's problems, because all the woke liberals and like, you know, gender ideologists, can like create their own, like, gender Utopia and see what happens. And then, you know, everyone who's a Marxian can go create a socialist Utopia and see what happens. And everyone who's a traditionalist can go create a traditional society and see what happens. And everyone who's maybe, you know, an aristocrat, like proponents of aristocracy, can go try that and see what happens. Whatever your political ideology, you can literally create a community and give it a whirl. And I think this is going to be one of the most fascinating times in history if we could actually make that happen, because we could actually apply political philosophy quickly and see and get feedback on it, right, and see what works. What type of meritocracy, what type of democracy, what type of aristocracy, what type of monarchy is going to work best. That is so fascinating.

me um because so many people have terribly flawed ideas when it comes to politics. When it comes to political philosophy and yet they have an Instagram story and it is share all this all this right that is unthought of regurgitation virtue signaling how informed they are when they know nothing. And I'm just like I wish y'all could just all get together and see how catastrophic that turns out. Please on another note Peter Turin is this ecologist turned Economist turned natural historian and brought models to history and he's someone I also want to make a podcast about and Peter Turin saw that the birthing of Nations and new ideas at the Forefront like George Washington sailing across that bay like you know the Greeks after they defeated the Persians Nations flourish and Thrive and grow fastest and produce the greatest you know evolution of culture when they're on the frontier and the frontier meaning that there's space to expand into an intense adversity intense adversity in fact the number one thing that predicts the life

lifespan of a nation is how much personal responsibility each person has invested in the whole. Right, a place like Sparta, for instance, was insane amounts of personal responsibility. Um, and that's why, you know, it flourished for a time. So, Nations flourish when they're on the frontier and they're against an adversary. When there's an adversary and US versus them, this is where, you know, basically like the idea that war is the father of all things. Now, this is kind of to the detriment of the decentralization idea because without an US versus them, without like we're a breakaway Society creating our own beliefs and this is our opposition, without opposition, there isn't enough fire to fuel growth, which is really interesting. It's like you can't practice a football match, you got to play a football match to really know what it's like and to get better at it. Um, so that idea of how do you find a frontier again and how do we create a frontier again that deserves more thought, um, the

other thing that leads to the flourishing of a Nation. The flourishing of a new people is wasabia, which is group shared feeling. This is so important. You look at this the founding of America. You know even when ancient Greece banded together to defeat the Persians. You look at the beginning of Rome. There was intense wasabia in the founding of every Empire and civilization, and it's this shared feeling and Collective Vision. It's almost like being convicted by a destiny as a people. Like the Germans in World War II. They were convicted by this Destiny, although it might have been flawed in leadership. They were convicted by a Destiny, and wasabia grows when you're on the frontier. When there is like, Hey, we are convicted by this vision and Destiny. We need to overcome these problems. And this might be a solution to the war issue. Is our problems today are against the world and the degenerating nature of the world. And we can actually create Wasabi and shared group Feeling by creating something new.

like some kind of society, some kind of breakaway idea, and decentralized idea that we have. High group feeling and shared participation in wasabia is what leads to a healthy nation. And now we look at America, for instance, there is zero wasabia, there is zero vision for where we're going, there is zero shared group feeling and participation in where we're going. Like everyone is at war with each other, in many senses, and many people are just in the middle and just like, you know, tapped out because they don't care anymore. They don't own a house, they don't own land, they're not participating in their local governments, like they don't have, they don't believe in where we're going, they think it's at the end too, right? And there's no more wasabia, and the lack of wasabia is one of the number one indicators that the nation is about to fall. So with that idea, I want to close this conversation on why we may be at the end. Thanks for watching wisdom.

Warriors, this is the first podcast on cultural philosophy. We dug into a lot there. Let me know where you want to go deeper. Also, if you want to join me and other men growing together, you know, coming into our most flourishing and excellent lives. I got a new men's group. Link in the description below. Thanks for being here. Click here for more podcast episodes if you're in the future, and I'll see you around. Peace.

Why our democracy will FALL - Podcast 1

Wisdom Warriors

The Influence of Star Wars on Political Philosophy

The first three Star Wars movies depict a manipulation of democracy to rise to power, reflecting the current political climate.

Palpatine's tactics of creating chaos and then offering a solution to gain executive power mirror real-world political strategies.

The story serves as a warning about the manipulation of public opinion and the desire for global domination in today's world.

The Pitfalls of Democracy and the Rise of Tyranny

Demagogues manipulate public opinion to create conflict and gain power, as seen in the examples of Al-Qaeda and the Palestine-Israel conflict.

Democracies in their later stages tend to create emergencies to consolidate power, ultimately leading to tyranny.

The system's reliance on popular opinion and the ease of manipulating the masses allows clever but morally debased individuals to rise to power, leading to the potential downfall of democracy.

The Impact of Liberal Democracy on Heroism and Cultural Values

Liberal democracy leads to the worship of mediocrity and the devaluation of excellence, resulting in a loss of cultural character.

It also brings about a shift in societal heroes from superior individuals to the average person, leading to a degradation of traditional virtues.

In addition, the comparison of owning land to renting land is used to contrast the long-term investment of monarchy with the short-term focus of democracy, highlighting the difference in care and value.

The Short-Term Focus of Democracy and the Importance of Long-Term Thinking

Politicians prioritize short-term popularity over long-term benefits, leading to detrimental decision-making.

Warren Buffett's preference for family-owned businesses reflects the value of long-term thinking for success.

The founding fathers' emphasis on private land ownership as a way to promote long-term thinking in democracy highlights its importance for sustainable progress.

The Impact of Property Ownership on Society

Property ownership encourages long-term thinking and investment for the future, while a rise in corporate property ownership is shifting society towards a renter mentality focused on immediate gratification.

Private land ownership is crucial for community engagement and self-governance, allowing individuals to have a meaningful impact on their local area.

The decline in individual property ownership is contributing to disengagement from political involvement and a loss of virtue-based community participation.

The Impact of Democracy on Religion and Virtue

The speaker argues that democracy has led to the death of religious faith and virtue, causing a loss of meaning and purpose in life.

They believe that the collapse of society is inevitable due to the loss of original values and the current state of democracy.

The speaker suggests that decentralization, including ideas like Bitcoin, offers an opportunity to create a sense of community and potentially a solution for the future.

The Potential of Decentralized Communities

Decentralized communities could allow people to experiment with different political ideologies.

Peter Turchin's theory suggests that nations flourish and grow when facing intense adversity and on the frontier.

However, the concept of decentralized communities faces the challenge of finding the necessary adversity to fuel growth.

The Importance of Wasabia in National Flourishing

Wasabia, a shared group feeling and collective vision, has been a crucial factor in the founding of empires and civilizations.

It is essential for creating a healthy nation and overcoming internal and external challenges.

The lack of wasabia in a country is a significant indicator of potential decline, as seen in the current state of America.